Yuki Tsunoda and rookie Isack Hadjar will both have points to prove during the 2025 Formula 1 campaign with Racing Bulls.
The Red Bull sister squad occupied sixth in the Constructors’ standings for the majority of the 2024 season but slipped up as the year wore on.
A development headache in the middle of the year allowed the likes of Haas and Alpine to catch up and by the time the squad got itself back on the right track, its advantage had disappeared.
In the end, Racing Bulls slipped behind both its midfield rivals to finish the year in eighth place, but with a new aerodynamic headquarters alongside Red Bull in Milton Keynes, there’s hope the team can do better in 2025.
But what should Tsunoda and Hadjar hope to achieve in this coming campaign?
Isack Hadjar
Sergio Perez being let go by Red Bull led to Hadjar getting the nod at the sister Racing Bulls squad via Liam Lawson’s promotion to partner Max Verstappen in 2025.
After an agonising title defeat in Formula 2, the French-Algerian can look positively on the year ahead on motorsport’s biggest stage.
He has Racing Bulls stalwart Tsunoda for company, a good yardstick to measure up against in the cut-throat Red Bull F1 environment.
With promising juniors coming through the ranks, Hadjar has to prove he’s worthy of an F1 seat long-term.
Speaking amid his F1 promotion, Hadjar expressed how he has seen his new team-mate as a role model.
“I look forward to working with and learning from Yuki, I’ve always looked up to him, he went through the Red Bull Junior Programme, like myself, and we’ve shared a similar path to F1,” he said.
“He’s very experienced and will be good to learn from.”
Yuki Tsunoda
With Lawson earning the Red Bull nod over him, there’s little more Tsunoda can do at Racing Bulls apart from proving people wrong.
The Japanese driver has been urged to keep his chin up and wait for any unlikely opportunity that could arise at Red Bull in the future, but his task this year must be to put himself in the shop window for a move away.
Speaking exclusively with Motorsport Week ahead of his fifth season in Faenza, Tsunoda explained how has progressed since his rookie campaign.
“It’s more controlled. Just the general complete driver, as emotionally, consistency, energy efficiency, everything,” he said.
“I feel like compared to 2021 as a person as well, not just inside racing, also outside racing, I feel just a different person in a good way, I would say. More calm, yeah.”
READ MORE – Isack Hadjar has ‘always looked up to’ new Racing Bulls team-mate Yuki Tsunoda
